[Coco] Off-topic posts require common sense

[James Hrubik]

Dear fellow CoCo-istas :

This is the only e-mail list I subscribe to.  I maintain the  
subscription because (1) the CoCo was my first computer and I have  
never ceased being impressed by what it could and still can do, (2) I  
have met a number of the regular posters personally (PennFest and  
other places) and in those short exposure times began a friendship,  
and (3) I have met the rest of you electronically in various places  
(going all the way back to the forum on Delphi over 20 years ago) and  
consider you all friends and part of a large family.

Over the years I have tried, with my very limited knowledge of  
electronics, to help out where I could.  I am not an electrical  
engineer or professional electronics techie or professional  
programmer, but an electronically ignorant backwoods bumpkin.  For  
this reason, the CoCo list has become a source of amazing information  
about all sorts of things electronical.  My CoCo is set up in the  
room next to my office, and I boot it up about once a year just for  
the thrill of seeing the OS-9 login screen; the fact that it comes up  
in the customized format is a testimony to the vast amount of useful  
CoCo information I have gleaned from this list.

However, I no longer use my CoCo to run my business endeavors (Ah!,  
but those were the days, when DynaCalc OS-9 kept my accounts!) and  
have little time to play.  I have moved on to other things and use  
Other Operating Systems (OOS) for my day-to-day work.  As much as I  
think that I know, the people on this list know far more.  Their OT  
posts are a source of information to me.  It is a source that I have  
found very valuable.  I don't mind it at all.  It has saved me much  
pain and tribulation, because those OOS are the things I have to  
touch every day.

OT posts do not bother me; many are messages requesting help or  
notifying fellow CoCo-istas of family events or other interesting  
items (and I am guilty of posting OT messages here as well, some of  
which garner torchy replies).  I am not going to unsubscribe from the  
list, but will remain in the background harvesting useful bits of  
information.  For those of you who are obvious experts in  
electronics, thank you, and please realize that when you offer a  
correction that you may not always be keeping the lines between fact  
and opinion clear.

Also, please realize that to some people, their favorite OOS is their  
religion, just as the CoCo was (and still appears to be) to many  
people.  Before you fire off a flaming reply to what you may see as  
an irrelevant, ignorant, stupid, or whatever post, think about the  
fact that you may be blaspheming their god.  Also realize that the  
best way to stop a flame war is to simply not reply to the post on-list.

I have said my piece, brothers and sisters.  Post whatever you want  
and I will trust that Dennis or his designees will weed out the more  
egregious problems.  I will now go back into hiding.

--Jim Hrubik

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